Will to Power
Will to Power The period between 2050 and 2060 shook up the status quo for everyone and that can all be laid at the very large talons of the Great Dragon Dunkelzahn . In life and in death, the dragon constantly questioned, instigated and proved to be a very talkative lizard ; maybe too much so, because he certainly made very power powerful people pretty nervous, He was the primary motivating force behind many political, economic and social movements for at least a decade and maybe beyond… President Dunkelzahn Before 2057, if you’d asked your typical SINless sprawl resident what he thought of dragons, much less Dunkelzahn, you’d have been greeted with blank stares or shrugs. No one really cared because the wizworms didn’t touch their lives in any way, shape or form. But then it came to light that the 2056 UCAS election had been rigged and President Steele and Vice President Booth were impeached. President pro-temBetty Jo Pritchard (incidentally our first female president) called for a new election , and Dunkelzahn announced his intention to run. All of a sudden, the question of eligibility came to light, meaning that he’d need a SIN in order to run – and the act of granting the dragon his SIN injected a bit more light and hope into some people’s lives. Eight months later, the Great Dragon Dunkelzahn became the first non-human President of the UCAS. Before he could do anything more than celebrate, however, the wyrm was assassinated outside his inaugural ball at the Watergate Hotel , leaving a large and visible astral rift, Thought there were many with plenty of motives to eliminate him, even the Scott Commission could not find a satisfying scapegoat on whom to pin the blame, The dragon’s running mate, Kyle Haeffner , became President; his interpreter, Nadja Daviar , was nominated and became Vice President. Dunkelzahn’s Will The biggest shocker, however, came with the new Vice President no only became Chairman of the new Draco Foundation , but also had a will from President Dunkelzahn to read. This will seemingly contained the vast majority of the Great Dragon’s hoard, which ranged from money paid out to lowly accountants, orichalcum in sock drawers, and stocks in various (mega)corps, to advice, warnings, and calls for help to various and sundry persons known and unknown. It created organizations, asked for rescues and put monetary support behind a myriad of projects and ventures fro which we have yet to understand the reasons. Artifacts and other objects were also given, both to metahuman acquaintances and fellow dragons. In other words, this created a largesse of business opportunities for shadowrunner and law-abiding citizen alike. Mega Shuffle No one except perhaps Dunkelzahn and a few others realized the repercussions this would have in the corporate world over the next four years or so. In between all of the bequests of music or money were entries entitling people such as Miles Lanier (right hand man of Fuchi co-owner Richard Villiers ) or Nadja Daviar (the Dragon’s spokesperson) to all or a portion of the dragon’s stock in this or that company. This sparked quite a bit of corporate maneuvering, which in the end led to the end of Fuchi and the creation of Novatech . Renraku took a severe hit when their pet creative genius (an eccentric elf who claimed to be Leonardo Da Vinci) vanished mysteriously along with all of his work – the untimely disappearance made it difficult for Renraku to justify their recent market advantage when Fuchi accused their former chief of security, Miles Lanier, of sharing proprietary data after Dunkelzahn bequeathed him a seat on Renraku’s board of directors. Damein Knight got taken down a peg or two when Nadja Daviar was given Gavilan Ventures, which controlled a large enough percentage of Ares stocks to ensure that he needed her help to maintain his level of power. Damien Knight’s long-time rival Leonard Aurelius sold his shares of Ares stock to prominent eco-lawyer Arthur Vogel – an attempt to implant a corporate conscience into Ares that has largely failed. Aurelius moved on to join forces with Lucien Cross – another of Knight’s bitter enemies, reportedly also involved in the Nanosecond Buyout – joining Cross Applied Technologies ’ board of directors and thereby continuing to polarize the conflict between Ares and CATco (which had become a AAA megacorp in 2053). Newcomer AAA Wuxing received several bequests of artifacts – including a statue and a coin – that pointed to quite an investment of magical power which has steadily manifested and grown from then on. *Back to: The Corporate Shuffle *Forward to: Year of the Comet *Return to: Jackpoint Category:History